The quest for a Great Gray Owl remained true to form with no sign of the bird, or even of the woman who claimed to see it.  Guy Mondy joined in the search, but ultimately had to move on to more productive tasks. I visited a number of probably locations in the area and put up posters in the hopes that someone had seen it and would call.

Anytime you do something like that, you run the risk of some pretty bizarre sightings.  I’m glad to say that I haven’t had any of those, but sad to say , I haven’t had anyone report a sighting of this owl, either.

I went to the end of the Lowry’s Rd and found an amazing cheeseworks and winery.  The cheese was good (I bought Brie), but what was amazing was their willingness for people to roam their property. Here is the sign at the entrance to the Little Qualicum Cheeseworks:

 

I didn’t have time to roam the property on that stop, but I’ll be back.  Free cheese and wine samples, too!

You may have noticed that the weather this week has been… well, weather!  There has been rain and there has been wind. Surely, all this wind must be blowing a pelican or two this way!

Technology has provided many new ways for us to get a better sense of what is going on out there.   One of my personal favourites is the Earth Wind Map at http://earth.nullsoft.com.  If yuo haven’t visited this site, prepare to be mesmorized. I’m providing a screenshot here, but the site is an animated globe of the world’s winds.

In this photo, you can see that the wind is slamming the island from the south/southwest.  But notice where the wind is coming from!  It’s passing over the Aleutians and then on to us.  There could be a Brambling or ten, or some other special bird being blown in.

With a lot of that going on, Jeremy Gatten and I hit the road last weekend to check out what might have ended up in Port Renfrew.  Try as we may, we couldn’t come up with any new birds for my list, but we did run across one uncommon sighting: Ed Pellizzon. Ed is a surfing birder–heavy on the surfing these days–and had come for the waves instead of the birds. He wasn’t having much better luck than Jeremy and me.  We birded together a bit, finding an interesting spot at the end of Island Rd where we found a Cackling Goose, Greater White-fronted Geese, and a Swamp Sparrow. Closer to the townsite, we found a Hermit Thrush working the shoreline.

By late afternoon, the rain was pretty persistent, pushing us home.

A report of a white wing-tipped gull in Cobble Hill influenced my decision on where to bird on Monday.  I think I might have found the flock, but the taget bird stayed out of range for me as it had for others.

Gulls are difficult even if you get a close look.  At this distance, I wouldn’t even hazard a guess. I did get an interesting photo of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

 

Tuesday morning brought even more rain and a special trip to Prospect Lake Golf Course, which in the midst of a change of use.  Only four of us were stupid, er, bold enough to bird in the rain.  I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the habitat seemed suitable for a Long-eared Owl.  This is a species that I believe is vastly underreported on the island, and I’d missed not one, but two, in the first part of the year.  We looked and looked, but didn’t find an owl.

I met up with some other birders for lunch and a birthday celebration of David Sterling’s 95th trip around the sun. Just as I was leaving, I got a call from Mike and Barb McGrenere.  They had just found a Long-eared Owl!  I raced to the site (which will remain out of this post for now) to find a lovely Long-eared out in the open for good looks and species number 266!  Thanks, Mike!

There’s always a fine line between protecting sensitive species and sharing unusual bird sightings, and in this case, many birders had an opportunity to see this bird.  Sadly, there are those who are not satisfied with a look or a capture taken from a distance that doesn’t harass the bird who feel the need to get as close as possible. That has led to a general “rule” that says that such sightings don’t get posted immediately and that the exact location only be spread by word of mouth.

There are medications for this sexual condition and Tadalista is one of them. levitra price The topic we are discussing about mostly focuses on facial rejuvenation and the buy viagra without prescriptions ways to achieve them. Zenegra must be consumed 30 minutes before the lovemaking session. levitra generic no prescription I canada viagra cheap am not that much sure, as I didn’t care for size ever. A trip to Esquimalt Lagoon provided some of the highest tides of the year. Here’s a photo I took at the hump.  (There was no hump.)

The young Tundra Swan is stil there, hanging out with the Trumpeter.

A cruise by the site formerly known as Rapers’ Pond provided an update on the changes there.  The field is flooded, as the owner anticipated, and there were a few ducks.  The lack of cover doesn’t seem to deter dabblers and both Gadwall and Mallards were present.   There was also a change that the owner probably didn’t expect, and confirms some of my feelings about invasive plants in my own yard, where my house sits at the top of a steep bank.  Denuded of roots and vegetation to mitigate the rain flow, the bank above the field has given way and a numbe of very heavy retaining wall blocks aren’t retaining anything anymore.  It looks like a big chunch of the hill dropped a couple of feet.

Later in the afternoon, a trip to Blenkinsop Lake revealed a roosting Northern Saw-whet Owl.  As I said earlier, caution must be taken when releasing information about sensitive species, but I’d defy anyone to find this owl based on this photo!

 

Here’s a hint. It was somewhere near the bridge. The point, with both the Long-eared and the Northern Saw-whet Owl, is that they are out there, and we probably walk by them on a regular basis. Listen to the smaller birds.  They are probably your best allies in finding owls.

Thursday morning, I found myself in the rain yet again.  I ran into Aziza Cooper at Clover Point, both of us looking for something the storms might have brought in.  There was one dark-backed gull, but judging his behaviour and response to people, I think he must have been there a while.

 

Gulls are hard!  Trust me when I tell you that even people who are gull experts argue about them. One of the really big differences between bird ID today and bird ID even 20 years ago is that with digital photography, debates can continue almost indefinitely.  I really wanted this bird to be a Slaty-backed Gull, but the eye, despite having a dark smudge isn’t mean enough and the orbital ring isn’t red enough, in my opinion.  If there are any gull experts who would like to turn this into species 267, I could be persuaded!  😉

The wind was blowing so hard the rain drops were leaving horizontal streaks on my windshield.  Not fine weather for birding, but as I left the point to head to the next stop, I was greeted by sunshine, waves crashing against the seawall, and a double rainbow. That’s supposed to be lucky, right?

Within about half an hour, I got an email from Germaine Taylor with news of an odd bird at a friend’s feeder. Joyce Nordwall had just seen a fairly large and definitely bright, orange bird at her suet feeder. It was chased off by a flicker.  I was about a half hour away, but off I went.

I didn’t miss anything in my travels.  Joyce had not seen the bird again — yet. One of the nice things about feeder birds and some hosts is that I got to sit inside drinking tea and eating cookies while watching for the bird.  And watch I did.  After three hours, no sign of what is most likely an oriole.  A Baltimore?  That would be fantastic.  A Bullock’s?  Also fantastic for a record, but not helpful for my list.  Joyce is going to keep a watch for it, and I’ll definitely be making a return visit.  It goes to show, though, that an unusual bird can turn up anywhere–maybe even at your feeder!

Next week promises to be one of the most strenous of the year. I am planning, weather permitting, to do five Christmas Bird Counts in a week, starting with Bamfield on Monday.  This may put me in the right place at the right time for some additions, or may put me many miles away as birds are discovered in other locations.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for luck and will try to post an update mid-week, but like the bird sightings, no guarantees!